I recently had a friend ask that I buy her some Toastmasters manuals at a regional event she could not attend. I was happy to oblige. Via e-mail I asked where I could meet her to drop them off. She replied back on her so called “smart” phone. “Drop them at my house, I “love” at…… address.” When I pointed out that this was too much information, we both had a good laugh. My story illustrates a point about writing either by e-mail, smart phone or on a social media site.
Whether it’s for professional or personal use I always want to appear somewhat intelligent in how I speak and write. An idea I like to share with folks on postings for E-mail, Facebook, Twitter or any other Social Media is to write your message out on a separate Word document. Check it for misspellings. You may have “spell checked” a word that is spelled correctly yet it is the wrong word. I don’t know about you but my wife can’t spend all her time correcting my bad spelling. She has things to do.
Check to make sure any links you add work correctly and you are sending your reader to the right web site. I once posted a link and had omitted one letter. My readers were sent to an adult web site that most found a bit embarrassing about. I received a few unpleasant e-mails back, yet others thanked me. The point being this was not the web site I wanted them to find. Some asked what I really did in my free time.
Read your message out loud. Ask yourself, does this make sense as written or can I make it more powerful with fewer words? How is my sentence structure? Can it be easily followed? People often write in abbreviation these days. I have to reread their messages to find out what they are referring to. Unless you are texting, please do not abbreviate common words. I could have written TMI in the first paragraph, yet how would you know that it meant, Too Much Information?
When I am finished with what I have written, I read it out loud. I write just like I speak, yet sometimes it will not read well. I therefore have to recompose what I have written. When I am satisfied with the way the message is reading, I copy it and then paste it in the place I wish it to appear.
These suggestions have saved me from having to retrieve a message I was about to post. I followed this process with this article. Yes, it is one more step in a busy day, yet I like to prevent problems rather than fix them. Mistakes will happen, yet you can fix many of them by taking this extra step before you hit “send.” Happy postings.
Whether it’s for professional or personal use I always want to appear somewhat intelligent in how I speak and write. An idea I like to share with folks on postings for E-mail, Facebook, Twitter or any other Social Media is to write your message out on a separate Word document. Check it for misspellings. You may have “spell checked” a word that is spelled correctly yet it is the wrong word. I don’t know about you but my wife can’t spend all her time correcting my bad spelling. She has things to do.
Check to make sure any links you add work correctly and you are sending your reader to the right web site. I once posted a link and had omitted one letter. My readers were sent to an adult web site that most found a bit embarrassing about. I received a few unpleasant e-mails back, yet others thanked me. The point being this was not the web site I wanted them to find. Some asked what I really did in my free time.
Read your message out loud. Ask yourself, does this make sense as written or can I make it more powerful with fewer words? How is my sentence structure? Can it be easily followed? People often write in abbreviation these days. I have to reread their messages to find out what they are referring to. Unless you are texting, please do not abbreviate common words. I could have written TMI in the first paragraph, yet how would you know that it meant, Too Much Information?
When I am finished with what I have written, I read it out loud. I write just like I speak, yet sometimes it will not read well. I therefore have to recompose what I have written. When I am satisfied with the way the message is reading, I copy it and then paste it in the place I wish it to appear.
These suggestions have saved me from having to retrieve a message I was about to post. I followed this process with this article. Yes, it is one more step in a busy day, yet I like to prevent problems rather than fix them. Mistakes will happen, yet you can fix many of them by taking this extra step before you hit “send.” Happy postings.
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